Water Relieves Stress

There are many important ways in which water relieves stress.

• Second to air, water is your body’s most vital substance.
Without water, your body becomes dehydrated. It reacts by producing
powerful hormones such as adrenalin and cortisone. These are the
hormones produced in fight/flight situations. As you can imagine, to
have these hormones flowing through your body on a continuous basis is
very stress inducing. Therefore, drinking water relieves stress.

• When you are dehydrated it affects many bodily functions. Your body is 75% water, so it can only work properly if it has enough water.
Water is to the body what oil is to a car. If you put no oil in your
car, eventually the engine will completely seize up and stop working.
If you do not put water in your body, it will also eventually seize up
and stop working. Fortunately for us, our bodies are more forgiving
than our cars and will continue working for a long period of time
without enough water. But without enough water, your body will be under stress
and, therefore, so will you and your children.

• Other drinks do
not work in the body like water does. Water is the only substance you
can put in your body that does not have to go through the digestive
process. When you drink a glass or water it passes straight through
your stomach and then into your small intestine where most of it goes
through the walls of your intestines and into your blood stream. Any
other drink has to be digested so that the water can be separated from
the other substances in the drink. By the time the water has been
separated it is much further down your digestive system before it enters
the blood stream and less of it is left for hydrating your body. Some
drinks like tea and coffee, actually dehydrate you because your body
has to use all the water in the drink to process the caffeine and other
chemicals in it. Sugary drinks will send your blood sugar very high and
this makes your body use a lot of water to help bring your blood sugar
down to a safe level. Children are particularly affected as their
bodies are smaller and they are more inclined to drink a lot of sugary
drinks.

• If you do not drink enough water, your body will lose
its natural thirst signal. Instead knowing that you are thirsty, you
are more likely to think that you are hungry. As a result, you will end
up eating when you need to drink. As digesting food uses up lots of
water you will end up even more dehydrated. This is also one of the
reasons why being dehydrated can make you put on weight.

• When your body is dehydrated your cells can lose more than 28% of their water.
Even though this is happening, it is not obvious. In fact, in order to conserve what water yu do have your body may
begin to retain water, leaving you with swollen ankles and legs, and a
puffy face. Also, your kidneys may hold onto water, which could result
in a build up of harmful waste products.

• Lack of water in your body will also result in increased pain.
When you are dehydrated your brain will send the water to where it is
most needed for your survival. To do this it uses a neurotransmitter
called histamine. When histamine comes into contact with your pain
sensing nerves it will trigger strong pain sensations. So here is a
clear situation in which drinking water relieves stress.

• Most important of all is your brain.
Your brain has a greater need of water than any other part of your
body. Brain cells are about 85% water. In order to work well, the
brain needs water which it uses to create energy within its cells along
with glucose. Lack of water in the brain can lead to not being able to
think clearly, anxiety, anger and even depression. You can imagine how
badly this can affect your children’s ability to learn effectively.
Drinking water relieves stress in your child's brain.

I think it is clear from the above that drinking water relieves stress but…..

What kind of water should you drink?

It is important for your family’s health to drink the purest water you can.
Most of the water that comes out of the tap is heavily chlorinated.
In fact, sometimes there is so much chlorine in it that you can smell
it. Water that has either been purified through filtration, reverse
osmosis or distillation is the best for you.

Filtration
Using a jug filter, such as a Brita water filter, will remove the
chlorine from your water. Make sure that you change the filter in these
jugs regularly because otherwise toxins will overwhelm the filter and
end up back in the water. You can also get water filters that can be
fitted under your sink.

Reverse Osmosis tends to be a bit more efficient than filtration. A good system will remove 99.9% of all contaminants in the water.

Distillation
is the process of turning water into steam and then back into water.
Doing this completely purifies the water but leaves none of the natural
minerals in it. However, you can add just a few grains or brown basmati
rice to the water and leave them to soak and this, amazingly enough,
will add lots of minerals to the water.

Another quick and easy
way of getting rid of chlorine from your water is to add vitamin C. 1
gram of Vitamins C per 100 gallons of water will do the job. Which is
useful if you want to get rid of the chlorine in your bath water!

Rehydrate slowly

If
you have not been drinking plenty of water already, then it is
important to start slowly and not launch straight into drinking a liter
and a half a day. If you start drinking more than your kidneys can
cope with then the overload can cause serious problems. The idea is
that water relieves stress rather than causing it!! Make sure you follow
the guidelines below:

1. Add one glass of water per day to the amount you usually drink. 2. Make sure you are urinating more often as you drink more. 3. If not then reduce the amount you introduce to half a glass a day. 4.
Also, if you notice any swelling in your ankles or around your eyes
reduce the amount of water you are drinking and add in a small amount
more each day. 5. Increasing the amount of water you drink will
enable your body to remove excess salt. Therefore, after a couple of
weeks of increased water it is a good idea to start adding a little
unrefined (sea salt) to your diet.

Try drinking more water to prove to yourself that water relieves stress.